5 ms·

I'm not sure Netflix would agree that a low monthly subscription is not enough to fund TV and movie development, but regardless... Fairly recently I saw a very

I'm not sure Netflix would agree that a low monthly subscription is not enough to fund TV and movie development, but regardless... Fairly recently I saw a very interesting proposal for this. The basic idea was to base it off of how artist commissions work, and combine that with crowdfunding. A creator can decide how much they need to make a thing - including both costs and how much profit they need to find it worth doing - can use crowdfunding to get the payment upfront. Then once they make the thing, it gets freely released. This works out for everybody. The creator has already obtained the amount of profit they desired. The people who paid to have to created have gotten it. The people who didn't pay can enjoy it if they wish. And overall everybody who "engaged" with the content now has a better idea of how trustworthy the creator is. The people who did not pay this time may have gained enough confidence to pay for the creators next project. Obviously, there are many realities to face here. The degree of departure from the current model is rather large. It's not something you can just flip the switch on tomorrow and expect everything to just magically work out with no pain. But I think it's an interesting idea, and one that meshes better with the realities of the digital medium than the current status quo.

ABeeSea 5y ago
Netflix is funding TV and movies through massive amounts of debt; not subscription revenues. It’s unclear if Netflix will ever make that money back since they can’t stop making content.
- codebolt 5y ago
  Most companies operate on leverage. There's nothing problematic about debt in itself.
xyzzyz 5y ago
> I'm not sure Netflix would agree that a low monthly subscription is not enough to fund TV and movie development, but regardless.. Okay, and what stops my competing company from running a subscription service, where I take all the shows that Netflix funded, and streaming to my customers for lower monthly price than Netflix’s, which I can do, as I don’t spend a dollar on content creation and acquisition? Oh, that’s right, copyright stops me from doing that.
bserge 5y ago
This doesn't work out for the studio. How are they going to maintain a grip on the creators and consumers then?
- shadowgovt 5y ago
  They aren't. Should society be facilitating that for them by allowing the law to punish people for sharing their work? Copyright serves society, not the other way around.
6gvONxR4sf7o 5y ago
Without copyright protections, everything on netflix is also going to be just as convenient to watch on youtube, but for free, meaning it's worth much much less to netflix. Extrapolating from netflix today to netflix without IP protections doesn't work.
zozbot234 5y ago
FWIW, this model (via crowdfunding platforms) has been successful in funding quite a few creative works, including very expensive ones. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_highest-funded_crowdfunding_projects https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_highest-funded_crowdfu... So the general principle is clearly workable. Funding live action movies in this way is still not very popular, though. Arguably, the cost structure in this industry might just be too challenging to succeed in the first place. The fact that they do get funded by other means looks like a bit of a puzzle! It might even be more of a loss-leading, perhaps marketing-focused activity than anything aimed at directly making a profit.

ABeeSea 5y ago

Netflix is funding TV and movies through massive amounts of debt; not subscription revenues. It’s unclear if Netflix will ever make that money back since they can’t stop making content.

codebolt 5y ago
Most companies operate on leverage. There's nothing problematic about debt in itself.

xyzzyz 5y ago

> I'm not sure Netflix would agree that a low monthly subscription is not enough to fund TV and movie development, but regardless.. Okay, and what stops my competing company from running a subscription service, where I take all the shows that Netflix funded, and streaming to my customers for lower monthly price than Netflix’s, which I can do, as I don’t spend a dollar on content creation and acquisition? Oh, that’s right, copyright stops me from doing that.

bserge 5y ago

This doesn't work out for the studio. How are they going to maintain a grip on the creators and consumers then?

shadowgovt 5y ago
They aren't. Should society be facilitating that for them by allowing the law to punish people for sharing their work? Copyright serves society, not the other way around.

6gvONxR4sf7o 5y ago

Without copyright protections, everything on netflix is also going to be just as convenient to watch on youtube, but for free, meaning it's worth much much less to netflix. Extrapolating from netflix today to netflix without IP protections doesn't work.

zozbot234 5y ago

FWIW, this model (via crowdfunding platforms) has been successful in funding quite a few creative works, including very expensive ones. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_highest-funded_crowdfunding_projects https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_highest-funded_crowdfu... So the general principle is clearly workable. Funding live action movies in this way is still not very popular, though. Arguably, the cost structure in this industry might just be too challenging to succeed in the first place. The fact that they do get funded by other means looks like a bit of a puzzle! It might even be more of a loss-leading, perhaps marketing-focused activity than anything aimed at directly making a profit.